Morning Roundup: Back to school edition

Good morning, Houston. It's back to the books for many area students this week, although HISD won't begin until August 27. Many local private schools have already started classes, and many will start up again this week, and many colleges will begin class this week as well. Although the temperatures are still pretty summer-y, these next couple of weeks have that end-of-August, book-reports-due feel to them.

>> Hurricane + no tax = shopping!: Stories of savings abounded this weekend as shoppers trekked to the stores to stock up on hurricane necessities and to save a few bucks during no sales tax weekend. A local Target employee noted, "People come to shop for Dean, but they're taking advantage of the sales-tax holiday." Although many people stay home on the sales tax holiday weekend because stores are too crowded, there's lots of money to be saved on school supplies, clothes, and, debuting this year, backpacks during the holiday.

>> Beached baby whale fighting to stay alive: A mother and baby whale were found stranded on Jamaica Beach in Galveston on Thursday. The mother died shortly after being moved to a rehabilitation tank at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility on Saturday. Between 150 and 200 marine mammals are stranded along the Texas coast each year, but mother-calf strandings are rare. This calf, nicknamed Moby by rescuers, can't be released into the wild because he hasn't learned survival skills from his mother and would either starve or fall prey to predators, so he will likely make his home at a zoo or aquarium after he makes a full recovery.

>> Today's weather: We might still see some clouds and rain today, and that should keep temperatures relatively bearable. The high today is a low, low 91, and we can expect the weather to be fairly consistent throughout this week.

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